1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to containers in general, and more particularly to a container arrangement for dispensing sheet materials, especially towels.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various constructions of containers, among them such that are designed for accommodating rolls, stacks, or other arrangements consisting of serially arranged sheet materials, especially dry or wet towels or tissues intended for use, for instance, by mothers of children of tender years to clean the faces or other parts of the bodies of such children. In this context, it is known that, due to the serially intertwined or nestled arrangement of the sheet materials, the respective previous or leading one of the sheet materials pulls with it the next succeeding one until a portion of the latter projects through an opening provided in the container for the removal of such sheet materials at which time the preceding or leading sheet material becomes dissociated from the succeeding sheet material and can be used for its intended cleaning purpose.
As advantageous as the containers of this kind may be for the purposes contemplated for them, they leave something to be desired as far as their use in other environments or for other purposes is concerned. More particularly, there are occasions when a person would like to avail himself or herself of a dry clean towel or tissue even though such a person is at a location exposed to the elements and especially to precipitation.
Under these circumstances, the heretofore proposed sheet material containers either do not provide any protection from the elements at all, or are completely sealed or closed, in which case it is quite cumbersome to gain access to them. Despite this complexity, however, it cannot always be assured that the sheet materials remaining in the container will not become wet as the sheet material to be used is being withdrawn through the opening, especially because the traditional containers of this kind are typically designed in such a manner that the aforementioned opening faces upwardly during such sheet material withdrawal.